Hunter Newsletter 2008

Hi everyone! We hope that you are all doing well. We thought that we’d catch everyone up on what we’ve been up to this last year.
Katie is still the librarian at Mark Twain Elementary School. She has a fantastic job. Part of her responsibilities include reading stories to the children and helping them find books. Anyone who attends her school can tell you that Katie is somewhat of a superstar there. All the students like Katie and treat her just like a celebrity. Whenever one of her students sees her around town they excitedly call out her name and say “hi”. She receives multitudes of compliments too. Often these compliments come first hand from the students. Other times, the kids tell the parents how much they like Katie and then the parents will mention it to Katie when they see her. Among the compliments she has received from her students are that she is beautiful, and looks like a princess and is “cool”. You can’t get better than that! One student told her that she was sorry that she was moving to a new school because she said that the librarian there probably wouldn’t be as cool as Katie. Katie also gets many offers from students to volunteer to help her in the Library during their school recesses. Sometimes they are too young to help her and Katie tells them that they must be in a higher grade. The students then optimistically exclaim “Oh, OK. Next year then!” Of course, we can all understand why the students all like her so much. Katie is a lovely, kind, helpful person with a very likable personality.
When Katie is not working, she finds time to read and work on the fantasy novels she is writing. Katie and I also enjoy reading together. During this past year we have read together The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
I am still working on my Ph.D. studies at the University of California, Riverside. This will be my last year of studies though as I hope to graduate in June, 2009. I am beginning to search for potential employment for after graduation. Right now I am leaning towards a job with a government agency like the Environmental Protection Agency. But I am also applying for industrial and academic positions as well. I still have about 6 months before I graduate, however, so we probably won’t find anything until my graduation date becomes closer.

Opera House in Sydney, Australia

This summer Katie and I went to Australia for two weeks so that I could attend a scientific conference held in Sydney. I presented my research on the potential risk of pyrethroid insecticides to aquatic animals. At the end of the conference, I received an award for the Best Student Poster Presentation. That was exciting. While in Sydney, Katie and I took time to sightsee. We visited the National Maritime Museum, the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife Park, and of course visited the famous Opera House and saw the Harbour Bridge. We spent about a week in Sydney. After that, we took a train north to Brisbane to visit my brother Shawn, his wife Jane, and their son Leroy, and my sister Maryann who is currently attending film school there. It was fun seeing all of them. Katie and I also went to the Australia Zoo (Home of the Crocodile Hunter). At the zoo we saw some of the famous animals unique to Australia including koalas, kangaroos, and wombats and Tasmanian Devils. Overall, we really enjoyed our trip to Australia. We thought that the places we visited were very beautiful. One drawback to the trip, however, was the higher prices in Australia (due to a weak US dollar). We also weren’t too terribly thrilled with the food there, but it was tolerable.

Wesley and Katie in Brisbane, Australia

This Christmas, Katie and I will be visiting my parents in Pocatello, Idaho and then spending New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with my brother Nick and his family in San Diego, California.

We wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Love,
Wesley and Katie Hunter

Baby countdown!

I've been scheduled to be induced for this Sunday (Dec. 21st) if Rachelle doesn't come before then. (She's not due until the 27th, but the doctor thinks she is big and wants the delivery to go as smoothly as possible.) Anyways, we are very excited to see our little angel and hold her in our arms. I'm sure everything will go fine, but we would really appreciate it if you guys kept us in your prayers that day!
Love,
Becca, Michael, Aaron, and Nathan
P.S. We will try to put a picture on here as soon as we can.
P.P.S. Check out our blog http://beccamikey2002.blogspot.com for more about our month (including snow here in Bryan!)

Gratitude . . .

I've been reading a lot this week about gratitude. It's certainly made me think a little about those things for which I'm grateful. So I'm want to share some of those with you . . .

I'm grateful for sunsets and sunrises, Kathy, James and Kara, my new daughter (in-law) Shawnee, each of you -- my extended family, the Gospel, my testimony, my opportunity to serve in the Lord's kingdom, my health, Kara's speedy and complete recovery, the home where I can relax and escape from the world, our heritage in the gospel, our Mom and Dad -- who loved us unconditionally and totally and taught us to love each other, their commitment to doing what's right, my job and career, my community (that I love so much), clouds and storms (thanks to Kathy for teaching me to appreciate them), my sense of humor (Scifres corn as some of you call it) that lets me enjoy life even more, and the holidays (all of them) that I enjoy so much.

Well, I could go on and on. But, you get the message. Life is full of so many things that we should be grateful for. So, I challenge each of you to take a few minutes during the next few days and reflect on those things in your life for which you are grateful.

Well, enough of that. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving Day. We'll be at Carol and Steve's. There will be just be the two of them, Aunt Edna, Uncle Fred (Steve's uncle that lives with them), Kathy and I, Kara and Kathy's Mom -- Ganny. James and Shawnee are going to spend Thanksgiving with her Mom in Stillwater. They both have to work on Wednesday and Friday -- so felt it better to just stay close. James also has to work on Saturday.

Kara's already making her list for shopping on the big "Day after Thanksgiving Shopping Day". That's a really big tradition for her (and her Dad, I must admit). Kathy comes along -- because we insist she join us, but it's really a big deal for Kara and I.

We hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving and everything that comes with it -- whether it be great food, great company, football, or a great nap after that great meal. We love you and wish we could all be together. Wouldn't that be great! Have a super day!

Karl and Kathy

Turkey Time!

Hey family! I was about to send out reminders to everyone to do an entry on the blog for November when I realized that I myself had not done one - so here it is. Life here in P-town is pretty great. The semester is wrapping up - I'll fly home on Tuesday for Thanksgiving and then I only have two more weeks of classes before finals and then it's home for a glorious Christmas break with no homework! WOOT! My classes are going well, but keep me pretty busy with studying for tests and such. I still have my last O Chem test to take before I head home on Tuesday. My roommate, Ashley, is getting married on December 20th, so I decided to sell my contract too and move in with friends. We were able to sell our contracts without a problem, so I'll be moving in late December - I'm pretty excited, although I will miss sharing a fridge with only 4 girls instead of the 6 I'll be sharing with next semester. I've been taking advantage of BYU's International Cinema - they show free international films in the SWKT - this week I saw two great ones - Motorcyle Diaries and The Visitor - I'd reccommend both of them. Friday night I went with a group of friends to hear our friend James perform in the BYU Steel Drum Band Concert. It was a blast. And today we got the "date more, hang out less" lecture from our bishopric - you've got to love BYU wards! I'm looking forward to everyone's updates. I hate that we can't be together during the holidays but through the blog we can keep eachother updated! Love to you all!

Serendipity during Scripture Study!

This was one of those rare mornings when I actually found something during my scripture study to use in my daily life. I'm currently reading Preach My Gospel and I'm in the section about the commandments, specifically prayer. I read the scripture in 2 Nephi 31:9 about not performing anything unto the Lord unless we pray that He will consecrate our performance unto Him that it will be for the welfare of our souls. I thought that it would be a great scripture to share with the Primary children this afternoon at our program rehearsal. I went to grab my small triple to put it in my purse. When I flipped open the scriptures (my travel set), I found a card that read, "We love you Aunt Mona!" from Sarah, Sam, and Erin. What fun to remember my trip to TN and the experience of attending church with them in their ward. When I sat by Sam in Sacrament meeting, I couldn't help remembering when Shaun was just his size and I went to church with him in Tulsa. I went to Primary with Sarah and she went to RS with me. Erin very capably took on the Mom role since Jenny was home sick and encouraged Sara to go to Primary instead of RS, but Sarah can be very determined! Another quick memory from the trip - as we were coming out of Nana and Papa's neigborhood, we looked to the right to see a plethora of paper scattered along the side of the road. These sweet kids decided that we should pick it up and we all jumped out of the car to do a quick good deed!
I continue to be very excited about our upcoming reunion in July. I'm thinking it would be fun to have a holiday theme, since we rarely get to spend holidays together. Meals, games, stories, and activities could revolve around various holidays and culminate with our very exciting anniversary celebration. What do you think? Are you ready to claim a holiday and the accompanying meal and activity?
Have a great Friday. I love you guys!
Mona

Mini reunion

With the looming surgery tomorrow, we've been blessed to have Kay with us. Shaun and his family came over this evening with food in tow, Chinese. We've had a good feast and will commence cardio workouts to bring balance back into our lives.

Papa spent part of the day on Saturday with Sarah and Erin watching their last soccer games of the season. Sarah was all over the field chasing the ball. Erin scored two goals in a 4 - 1 victory. Papa immediately came home and slept for two days; give or take a day or two.

Papa and Shaun will give me a blessing later tonight. We have to be at the hospital at 5:30am. The surgery is supposed to last 6 - 8 hours. Just another typical day for a brain surgeon. Someone here will keep everyone updated on my status so stayed tuned. Maybe we'll get pictures of my brain. By the way, they said that one of the side effects of probing my brain may be that I am turned into a democrat. After which I will gladly pay more taxes and allow the government to make my decisions.

(this was written by a ghost writer)

Happy Halloween!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! We did! Aaron got to wear his costume for four different events and Nathan for 3. First of all, we went to a pumpkin walk in downtown Bryan last Saturday where we viewed all the entries for a pumpkin decorating contest. The theme this year was Dr. Suess so there was a lot of different and interesting pumpkins. A lot of the schools participate so I think we will try to have Aaron enter a pumpkin in next year's contest.Then on Wednesday night we had our ward Halloween carnival and trunk-or-treat. Aaron and I made decorations and decorated the trunk of our newly bought 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. (We have been thinking that we probably needed a minivan with the new little one coming and we found a great deal and bought it on Monday.) The boys had a blast at the ward party and our trunk turned out great!

Thursday morning Aaron dressed up again for his preschool Halloween party at the park. Nathan and I ended up staying so I guess we should have put his costume on too, but he was okay with wearing a Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt.
Then of course on Friday we dressed up again to go trick or treating in our neighborhood and transferred our trunk decorations to our doorstep. We didn't have much luck finding houses giving out candy, but that is okay. We all had a lot of fun anyways and we got plenty of candy at our ward party.

I don't want to take up any more space on here right now so check out our family blog at http://beccamikey2002.blogspot.com/ to see more about our month. It has some pictures from Nathan's birthday and our trip down to Houston that weekend to visit my cousin Adam and his family. Poor Adam had to work, but we were able to go with his wife and daughter.
We love you all!
Love,
Becca, Mikey, Aaron, and Nathan